Jelly. The new app from the makers of Twitter.

Biz Stone, perhaps most famous for creating the little known social-media app Twitter, has officially announced his new project: Jelly.

Jelly is dubbed a “Q&A” network and aims to answer life's greatest questions. Or rather it aims to get you to answer life’s greatest questions. Working not too unlike a google search, in the sense you search for an answer and get a response, expect Jelly replaces Google’s search algorithm with a response from a real person.

Here’s an excerpt from the official press releases that details Stone’s idea of how Jelly can be used:

Say you’re walking along and you spot something unusual. You want to know what it is so you launch Jelly, take a picture, circle it with your finger, and type, “What’s this?” That query is submitted to some people in your network who also have Jelly. Jelly notifies you when you have answers.

Interesting huh? Similar concepts that involve “local social networks” have been going around the internet lately. Circle, another social media app, aimed to connect users in a local area by only showing you posts that are geographically close your location. Unfortunately some sketchy adoption methods (ie: spamming your facebook contacts with invites to the app) have plagued Circle’s perception by the public. However the idea is solid and Jelly is another example of this trend.

It’s a got a solid philosophy: help people help each other. It’s basically a fix to the pitfalls of automated search engine algorithms. What’s this painting? What’s this album cover? Where can I find a good bar around Fitzroy? Questions that a search engine may struggle to answer but the right person could solve quite easily. Jelly aims to find that person. The most important part of Jelly though is making the service fun. A great idea isn’t always great fun and I think this will be Stone’s biggest challenge yet.